MAXIMIANUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS

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MAXIMIANUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS , surnamed HERCULIUS, Roman emperor from A.D. 286 to 305, was born of humble parents at Sirmium in Pannonia. He achieved distinction during long service in the army, and having been made Caesar by Diocletian in 285, received the title of

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

in the following year (April 1, 286). In 287 he suppressed the rising of the peasants (Bagaudae) in Gaul, but in 289, after a three years' struggle, his colleague and he were compelled to acquiesce in the assumption by his lieutenant

Carausius

CARAUSIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS

(who had crossed over to Britain) of the title of

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

. After 293 Maximianus left the care of the Rhine frontier to Constantius Chlorus, who had been designated Caesar in that year, but in 297 his arms achieved a rapid and decisive victory over the barbarians of Mauretania, and in 302 he shared at Rome the

triumph

TRIUMPH (triumphus)

of Diocletian, the last pageant of the kind ever witnessed by that city. On the 1st of May 305, the day of Diocletian's abdication, he also, but without his colleague's sincerity, divested himself of the imperial dignity at Mediolanum (

Milan

MILAN
MILAN (Ital. Milano, Ger. Mailand, anc. Mediolanum, q.v.)

), which had been his

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

, and retired to a villa in Lucania; in the following year, however, he was induced by his son

Maxentius

MAXENTIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS

to reassume the purple. In 307 he brought the emperor Flavius Valerius
Severus a captive to Rome, and also compelled Galerius to

retreat

RETREAT (O. Fr. retrete, mod. retraite, from Lat. retrahere, to draw back)

, but in 308 he was himself driven by

Maxentius

MAXENTIUS, MARCUS AURELIUS VALERIUS

from Italy into Illyricum, whence again he was compelled to seek

refuge

REFUGE

at Arelate (Arles), the court of his son-in-law, Constantine. Here a false report was received, or invented, of the death of Constantine, at that time absent on the Rhine. Maximianus at once grasped at the succession, but was soon driven to Massilia (Marseilles), where, having been delivered up to his pursuers, he strangled himself.
See Zosimus ii. 711; Zonaras xii. 3133; Eutropius ix. 20, X. 2, 3; Aurelius

Victor

p. 39. For the emperor Galerius Valerius Maximianus see GALE5UUS.

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